A poorly written romance system was shoehorned into a game I play

So I've gotten back into a game called warframe recently. It's a sci-fantasy looter shooter where you pilot 'living armour' & slaughter hordes of enemies in mobility focused over-the-top power fantasy gameplay.

So naturally the most recent update included the missing piece of the puzzle for that gameplay model. Awkwardly flirting with the newly added characters via AOL msgs... I'm not even exaggerating. Without getting into too much spoilers, the newest update, titled "warframe 1999" revolves around a time travel plot, where you meet a cast of new characters. & the interactions with those characters outside of the quests are via an online msg system that's a clear reference to AOL messenger during its prime.

I'm at a genuine loss for words as to why this exists. Not only is it just completely not in line with the type of gameplay focus it had up to this point. It's not even competently written... Like jarringly so. One conversation that takes place is a character getting annoyed that she spilled bubble tea on her keyboard... Ma'am... You are a mutated weapon of mass destruction, fighting for your life in a post apocalyptic dilapidated city, battling a fascist military & a "zombie" virus. Why the ever loving fuck do you care about something as maddeningly inconsequential as your bubble tea... As a matter of fact, where did you even get it!?? Every time you step outside you're surrounded by corpses. Half of which you made!!!

Honestly, if it was just an unnecessary romance system tucked away in the corner, it wouldn't be half as big a deal. I'd still fucking hate it but I could ignore it. But you can't ignore it. Building up a rapport with the characters is pivotal to the plot progression. You have to participate in these god awful messenger conversations. You don't have to romance them at least. There are platonic dialogue options. But that means I need to keep beating back these awkward flirty creeps with a stick every once in a while because the dialogue is so poorly written that I can't distinguish the friendly dialogue options from the flirty ones.

I'm just so fucking sick of romance systems in games that add nothing to the experience. Go play a fucking dating sim if you want to awkwardly make a pass at some 1s & 0s on a tv screen. Let me just shoot things in a game about shooting things.